Golden Globes Surprises and Snubs: So Many Newbies, But No Homeland (Again)

Remember when the Golden Globes nominated Smash last year? Good times. There was no comically WTF nomination like that in Thursday's batch, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association kept us on our toes. Check out our surprises and snubs below, ...

Comment

By TV Guide

Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA

By TV Guide

Posted Dec. 12, 2013 at 9:55 AM

By TV Guide
Posted Dec. 12, 2013 at 9:55 AM

Remember when the Golden Globes nominated Smash last year? Good times. There was no comically WTF nomination like that in Thursday's batch, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association kept us on our toes. Check out our surprises and snubs below, and then tell us yours.Breaking Bad, Good Wife and new blood top Golden Globe nominationsSURPRISESIt girls are the new black: If there are two things the Hollywood Foreign Press Association loves, they are shiny new toys and young ingénues. So, naturally the Globes would be the first major awards body to recognize critical darling Tatiana Maslany's nuanced, multi-facted (and -personalities) work on Orphan Black, after she had been snubbed by the Emmys and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. In the same vein, switching from comedy to the much more stacked drama race didn't hurt Orange Is the New Black's Taylor Schilling, who cracked the field over two-time defending champ and Globes favorite Claire Danes (Homeland).

New blood: Speaking of shiny new toys, you can always count on the Globes to embrace multiple new shows. They went above and beyond this year, nodding eight freshmen series or its stars, including the aforementioned Maslany and Schilling, House of Cards (expected), Masters of Sex, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ray Donovan, The Blacklist and The Michael J. Fox Show. (Fun fact: Bryan Cranston is up against actors from first-year shows, all of whom, coincidentally, have a surname starting with "S.") The best news for the newbies is that the nomination doesn't have to be the reward: More often than not, the Globes gives the award to first-time nominees.The Good Wife returns: After the SAGs overlooked the legal drama, which has been firing on all cylinders this season, the HFPA recognized it with three nods: drama series, actress for former champ Julianna Margulies and supporting actor for Josh Charles, his first nomination. The nods are all the more impressive, as Charles snuck into the hectic catch-all supporting TV series/miniseries/TV movie race, and the show returned to the series lineup after a two-year absence - always difficult to do since the Globes moves on to new things so quickly.Monica Potter: Good things come to those who wait. Though the Parenthood star's relentless campaigning and bait-y cancer story line couldn't sway Emmy voters over the summer, the HFPA didn't forget about Potter's tremendous work. Time to get out of your PJs, Monica!Aaron Paul: It's no secret that Breaking Bad has never been the HFPA's cup of tea - it didn't even get a series nomination until last year, and three-time Emmy winner and reigning SAG champ Bryan Cranston is 0-3 so far at the Globes. But like the SAGs jumping on the bandwagon with a nod for Anna Gunn Wednesday, the Globes can resist the juggernaut no longer, handing nods not only to the show and Cranston, but a long-awaited one to two-time Emmy champ Paul. This is Breaking Bad's last and best chance yet to fill that void in its awards resume.SAG nominations surprises and snubsSNUBSHomeland: It's déjà vu all over again for the Showtime thriller. Two years after it received zero Globe nominations for its phenomenal first season, Homeland is MIA. The shutout stings more this time since the show, Danes and Damian Lewis are reigning champs, but given the drama's uneven, divisive third season, it's not a complete shocker. The good news: Danes' perfect 4-0 Globes record remains intact.Maggie Smith: Leave it to the Globes to be the first awards show to get off the Dowager love train. (And it looks like it's about to disembark from Downton Abbey altogether - it only received one nod for drama series.) Smith, the defending champ, is great and all, but maybe voters finally realized that her feisty performance mostly amounts to sauntering into a room and spouting zingers.Robin Williams: If you had told us only one of returning TV vets Williams and Michael J. Fox would be nominated, we would've put our money on Williams. He's a four-time Globes champ in TV and film, a Cecil B. DeMille Award winner, the Globes gave him a Special Achievement Award for his work in Aladdin, and he's on the bigger, flashier show (The Crazy Ones). Guess he'll just have to be content with destroying The Michael J. Fox Show in the ratings.End of an era for HBO: The drama series shortlist not only stops a two-year run of only cable shows in the lineup, thanks to The Good Wife, but it marks the end of a long-running streak for HBO. For the first time since The Sopranos premiered 14 years ago, kick-starting the Golden Age of TV and putting cablers on the map, there is no HBO show in the drama series race. Since The Sopranos came onto the scene, the Globes have nominated practically every drama HBO put on the air for series: Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Rome, Big Love, In Treatment, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and The Newsroom. Is this just an off year? Maybe. But with the embarrassment of riches on cable, especially on the drama side, HBO might have to wait a little longer to get back in the game.What were you most surprised by? Who do you wish had been nominated?